An incidental benefit of the Library is found in its rich accumulation of works of the fine arts. These include, besides the multitude of illustrations and galleries to be found in books, hundreds of thousands of examples of graphic art, many of them costly and valuable, acquired by copyright. Arranged in classes, in the spacious art-gallery provided, they form a most instructive and entertaining exhibit of the progress of the arts of design.
Of the numerous and beautiful works of art embraced in the decoration of the Library building, full account is taken elsewhere in the present volume. Suffice it to say here, that readers and frequenters of the Library who are surrounded with such architectural and artistic attractions, will find rich suggestions on every hand, as they pursue their several aims. What more inspiring adjuncts to study or contemplation can exist than the sumptuous marble arches, the statues of illustrious authors, the graphic paintings and sculptured emblems illustrative of science, literature, and art, and the many inscriptions drawn from the writings of the great scholars of the world? The stately Library building with its precious contents thus contributes not only to the public intelligence, but also to elevate and to refine the public taste.
While every consideration favors the most liberal hours of frequentation and use of the collection, it is manifestly not a proper function of a National Library to furnish a circulating library for the people of the city in which it is located. All experience proves that a great library of reference cannot be made a library of general circulation without destroying its function as a reference library. Every frequenter of the National Library has a right to expect that the books it contains will be found when called for. This is impossible if a large portion of them are out in circulation. Nor can this be met by the claim that duplicates would enable the Library to loan freely. There are no more than enough duplicates to meet the uses of members of Congress who have the legal privilege of drawing books. Moreover, the few who would be convenienced by the loaning out of the books would be favored only to the inconvenience of the many, who would find very many of them continually absent from the shelves. The greatest good of the greatest number would thus be unjustly sacrificed.
The suggestion has been made that one of the two copies of books received by copyright might be utilized for the purposes of circulation. This is conclusively met by the fact that the copyright deposits are a trust under the law, like the models in the Patent Office, and while one copy may properly be kept in the Library, for the use of Congress and for public reference, the other should be sedulously preserved in the copyright archives. All comers, however, have free enjoyment of the benefits of this great Library within its attractive walls, and are welcomed by its liberal management to share its literary, scientific, and artistic treasures.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Those allowed to take books from the building are: the President; Vice-President; Senators, Representatives, and Delegates in Congress; Cabinet Officials; the Justices, Reporter, and Clerk of the Supreme Court; the Judges and Clerks of the Courts of the United States in the District of Columbia; representatives in Washington of foreign governments; the Solicitor General and Assistant Attorneys-General; the Secretary of the Senate; the Clerk of the House of Representatives; the Solicitor of the Treasury; the Disbursing Agent of the Committee on the Library; former Presidents of the United States; the Chaplains of the two Houses of Congress; the Secretary and Regents of the Smithsonian Institution; the Members and Secretary of the Interstate Commerce Commission; and the Chief of Engineers of the Army. No one, however, not even these officials, may take away any manuscript or map, or any book of special value and rarity. Books are delivered to the order of any of the persons having the special privileges of the Library, but only for their own use. They have no authority to give an order in favor of another person. Previous to the erection of the new building, one of the rules of the Library had permitted the Librarian, at his discretion, to issue books to the public generally, for home use, on the deposit of a sum of money sufficient to cover the value of the volume applied for, but this provision was found to be an embarrassment and has since been abolished.
[2] The list of the previous Librarians of Congress, with the dates when they were appointed, is as follows: John Beckley, 1802; Patrick Magruder, 1807; George Watterston, 1815; John S. Meehan, 1829; John G. Stephenson, 1861.
[3] Such as Races and Peoples, by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton.
[4] The three groups are reproduced as headpieces to the three portions of this Handbook: the first, representing [Literature], to introduce the present general description; that representing [Art], over Mr. Caffin’s essay; and the third, representing [Science], over Mr. Spofford’s.
[5] Mr. W. C. Brownell, in Scribner’s Monthly.